RAAF c-130's grounded

[wessex19]

source;AAP
"The Defence Force has grounded its fleet of Hercules aircraft after an unusual fault prompted an emergency landing.

A Defence spokeswoman has told Fairfax newspapers the fault was detected on Monday night during a training flight near Richmond, north-west of Sydney.

She says a plane declared an emergency after its crew detected a fault with the nose-wheel.

The crew called a mayday but landed safely at the Richmond Base 20 minutes later.

Following the incident, all 24 of the RAAF's Hercules transport planes were grounded for all non-essential flights until the cause had been detected."

:ouch:
Have the RAAF grounded their fleet before?? (if the above report is true!!)

[Stretch06]

The C130's are not grounded. They are operationally restricted. Meaning only essential missions / tasks will be conducted.

[Flight Detent]

Are we talking "J's" only, or all of them?

[makespeed250kt]

Pretty sure it was a PAN call, not a MAYDAY too...

[Jabawocky]

Sounds like they had a bad night......wobbly wheels and high temps:uhoh:

Glad it all stayed glued together for them!

[Trojan1981]

Wessex, There was a main gear failure a few years ago. I can't think of any other groundings. There have been quite a few temporary opr restr on several ADF types over the last few years.

[Stretch06]

Are we talking "J's" only, or all of them?

All of them, both J and H models. Originally a PAN due to the nose wheel, when the eng issues commenced they increased to a MAYDAY.

[Funk]

From a fairly reliable source No1 engine out on a Herc is not much fun

[juliet]

Funk,

No 1 out on a Herc J no real drama at all, and in some ways easier than the failure of an inboard. Even double Assy at high weights is easily controlled thanks to the FADECs and lots of power still available from the other 2 engines. (Im assuming it was a J, dunno about those smelly old 4 Bladed things:})

To be honest engine failures for practice were pretty boring, while the one time I shut an engine down in anger it all went so smoothly and easily I was left looking at the other pilot with both of us thinking "is that it?"

Congrats to the guys for dealing with this nosewheel situation, and good on them for throwing out a MAYDAY. Lots of people are too worried about paperwork or how people will judge their decision, nice to hear the system being used properly.

[OZBorn]

All 24 means H & J. They both have the same nose wheel arrangement.

[J D]

Agree with Juliet, 1 engine out is no big deal even in those smelly old 4 bladed models. ( I flew H-1's) I had 2 engines caged once in the litterbox and the mighty herk got us home safe and sound. (granted, they were not on the same wing and we were fairly light weight).

We ofter refered to the herk as a Lockheed Tri-Motor with an airborne spare.

I am curious as to happened to this crews nose gear.

[Hiflow]

2 J's were doing circuits today at YPED. Does that count as operationally restricted?